Donald Trump told one of his fans at the Gays For Trump support group that he didn’t “look gay” during a fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago for a Michigan GOP candidate Wednesday night.
The ex-president chaired the event to support John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official who is challenging Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) for his seat in the Aug. 2 Michigan primary.
A short video shot during the event and shared on Twitter by PatriotTakes shows Trump on a podium in front of a receptive audience.
A person is heard shouting “Gays for Trump!” seemingly modeled after the pro-Trump LGBT group of the same name.
“Where’s gay for Trump?” asked the former president.
Someone replied, “We’re over here! Gays for Trump!’ before Trump pointed his finger in their direction.
“You don’t look gay,” he said as the crowd erupted in laughter.
He continued, “As you know, we’ve done a great job with the gay population,” before the 17-second clip ends.
Despite a small but vocal group of consistent supporters within the LGBTQI+ community, the former president was widely panned by gay and lesbian groups during his tenure.
The former president spoke at a fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago for Michigan House candidate John Gibbs (rear left), a former Trump administration official who poses a major challenge to incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer
A person is heard shouting “Gays for Trump!” seemingly modeled after the pro-Trump LGBT group of the same name. “Where’s gay for Trump?” asked the former president. He then found her in the crowd and said, “You don’t look gay.”
A LGBT medical research and advocacy policy brief released by the Fenway Institute near the end of Trump’s presidency found that he “enacted more anti-LGBTQIA+ policies than any previous administration in history.”
The identities of the Gays for Trump members at Wednesday night’s fundraiser were not immediately clear.
Gibbs, who appeared to be several feet behind Trump at the beginning of the clip, was a former officer in the Republican Housing and Urban Development Division. It was made by Dr. Ben Carson, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016.
The incumbent he is challenging for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
In another clip from the same event, Gibbs recounts his time in the Trump White House by making a joke about verbally abusing his staff.
“When I went to work in President Trump’s administration, I had never yelled at work or verbally abused anyone at work. But guess what? That’s changed,” Gibbs said while the audience laughed.
In the same clip, he said Trump looks “even younger” today than he did before he ran for president in 2016.
Despite a small but vocal support in the LGBT community (pictured: participants at a Gays for Trump march in October 2020), the former president has been widely criticized for failing to protect gay and transgender Americans during his tenure in the White House had withdrawn
Trump misspelled Meijer’s name in a November 2021 statement announcing an endorsement of his challenger.
“Meyer was a terrible representative of the Republican Party and beyond,” the former president said of his Save America PAC. “John Gibbs is a fabulous talent who loves the state, our military and our vets.”
Trump is expected to make another public push for Gibbs during an upcoming rally this Saturday in Washington Township, Michigan.
It’s the first time the Republican leader has been in Michigan since losing the state to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Wednesday night’s event also isn’t the first time Trump has had the American gay community on his mind in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Trump gave a sneak peek at how he entertains guests at his Mar-a-Lago club, revealing that the Village People’s “gay national anthem,” YMCA, is always a hit at the Florida retreat.
The former president discussed his new job as a disc jockey entertaining the members of Mar-a-Lago during a wide-ranging interview with the Full Send podcast on Friday and Saturday nights.
The episode has since been removed from YouTube for violating the video site’s misinformation policy.
“I choose the ones I like. I don’t want to spin, I want to pick the ones I like,” Trump said of his style of DJing.
When asked if he had any particular favorites, the ex-president pointed to the 1978 YMCA hit.
“You know what makes them rock? YMCA,” Trump said.
“YMCA – the gay national anthem. Have you heard that before? The gay national anthem.’
Trump was already known to play the classic disco track at his rallies, often moving a little to the beat himself. Another well-known Village People song, Macho Man, was also heard at the ex-president’s events.
However, he curiously chose another song to play backstage at a rally in Florence, South Carolina – his first since the comment made headlines.